April 28, 2025
At B Local, our focus is amplification, collaboration, and supporting fellow B Corps with a mandate to do good as we do well.
Dotfusion is the next in our Spotlight series with a goal to promote B Local member businesses, as well as bolster greater community through shared learning and experiences.
Talk to us about your WHY. Why a purpose driven business and why the pursuit of B Corp?
We learned about B Corp through our good friend Ben, who is also a B Corp consultant. Dotfusion was already operating with similar values of accountability, social good and transparency, so getting certified was a way of formalizing our commitment to these principles and benchmarking against constant improvement.
A bonus outcome of becoming a B Corp is being part of a community of like-minded organizations. We've met some great companies that we've partnered with on projects—knowing fellow B Corps share similar values and culture helps us build trust and rapport quickly.
Is there a B Corp or B Corp leader that you look up to? Explain.
Definitely Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. His philosophy around business—that it should be used as a force for good—really resonated with me. He's also an adventurer and free spirit. The Chouinard family ensured that Patagonia continues to benefit the planet by setting up the Patagonia Trust and the non-profit Holdfast Collective to use its profits for environmental causes.
I also admire Paul Polman, who was CEO at Unilever during my time there. Unilever is not officially a B Corp, but Paul operates with B Corp values. Paul set an ambitious vision to completely decouple Unilever's business growth from its overall environmental footprint. He knew it was possible to build a profitable business AND have a positive social impact. He is a powerful advocate for environmental and social responsibility.
Can you share a specific example of how your company values have shaped your business practices or decision-making process?
About eight years ago, our founder, Chris Bryce, ended up on a trip to Cambodia. He was impressed by the curiosity and desire of the local youth. They were hungry to learn but had few opportunities to achieve a fair living wage and limited outlets to get the technology skills training needed to compete at an international level. He spent the next five years investing in the community, reaching out to businesses to get involved and flying in our CTO to train local Cambodians on how to code on enterprise software. We built a team of developers and continue to invest in their technical and leadership development.
